


Reaching your limits

by Rangergirl3



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [24]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Blood and Injury, Gen, Keith (Voltron) Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-03
Updated: 2019-10-03
Packaged: 2020-11-22 12:04:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20873933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rangergirl3/pseuds/Rangergirl3
Summary: Keith can't remember the absence of pain.





	Reaching your limits

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Reopening an old wound
> 
> The fourth and final part of these four-in-a-row prompts (Coughing up blood, Pulling Teeth, Traumatic Haircut and now this one)

The first thing Keith knows when awareness returns is that he is no longer on the main bridge of the Galra ship.

Something about the air-flow feels different.

_A cell, maybe? _

He considers opening his eyes, but decides against it. He's not entirely certain he can, anyway, since dried blood has coated most of his face. It's entirely possible that his eyelids are stuck shut like this.

_Something moves nearby._

Keith immediately tries to sit up. He then discovers two other pieces of information.

The first is that his wrists are chained behind his back, presumably because Haxus is an asshole who doesn't care if Keith bleeds out in this cell or not. Given how cold, nauseous, and light-headed he's already feeling, Keith figures he might already have lost too much blood. The second fact that he discovers is that there is no give whatsoever to the cuffs.

_The sounds grow closer._

Keith flinches, but he doesn't even have the strength to try to move. He can’t even see. _He’s stuck, like this, on the ground, and he can’t move, he can’t get out of the way, they’re going to come back and - hurt him again - _

When the sounds stop right beside him, Keith _knows_ that someone's leaning over him, and he can’t help it. He starts to sob, but remains silent, so maybe whoever this is won't notice.

_But it doesn't matter._

They're still going to hurt him.

_They always do._

* * *

Matt swears under his breath, trying to decide which injury to try and treat first.

He decides to take care of the stab wound first. It's the worst one by far, and Keith's already pale from the loss of so much blood.

When he presses his hands down on his friend's injured side, Keith's spine goes ramrod straight in what might be agony. 

Matt hopes he's wrong, but even if it hurts - _it does, he **knows** it does, because Haxus had twisted the knife before yanking it free_ _the second time_ \- Keith has lost far too much blood to leave anything to chance.

So Matt continues to apply pressure to the injury, even when Keith tries to wrench away from the new source of pain.

* * *

_He doesn't want to hurt anymore._

Keith tries, again, to sit up, or at least to turn away from this new source of pain, but whoever is pressing down on his side is strong and knows exactly what they're doing.

_\- just like Haxus -_

Before, back on the ship's main deck, Keith might have tried to fight, but now, he was alone, and afraid, and in pain.

_If this person was anything like Haxus, nothing he could say or do would make them stop._

But it hurts too much not to try.

"...p - pl - 'se..."

He breaks off, coughs, has to struggle to say more.

_His throat is so dry, and so, **so** sore._

"...s...st...stop..."

* * *

Matt had braced himself to fend off any frantic attacks Keith might try in literal blind desperation or panic, but that makes what happens instead... 

_Worse. A lot worse._

It's worse because Keith is a fighter. It's more than what he does on the team, or against the Galra Empire, or on missions for the Blade.

It's what he _is_.

When his back is up against a wall, Keith _fights_. No matter what the odds are against him, he charges into the battle, and he doesn't quit until he finds a way through. Or, he did.

_Until now._

Matt's never seen Keith like this.

But if he hesitates, or lets up on the pressure, his friend will die. So instead of doing what he wants to do, which is to throw up or start crying or both, Matt keeps the makeshift bandages firmly pressed against Keith's side.

"Sorry, buddy," he mutters. "I'm - I'm trying to help. I -"

He has to blink rapidly and clear his throat before continuing.

"- I promise. Just hang on."

* * *

When the pressure on his injured side only increases in answer to his plea, Keith gulps back another silent sob and doesn't speak again. 

_What's the point?_

_No one ever listens to him._

With that thought, the old, _old_ pain that he carries in his heart threatens to drown him.

_He's broken. Worthless._

No one would ever listen to someone like him.

_He'll die here, alone and forgotten._

Keith doesn't want to die...but...he just...he _wishes_ there was someone who would miss him.

_It sounds so selfish. It always did._

Tears burn behind his eyelids.

He simply cannot remember the absence of pain. It's as if his entire existence is concentrated _here_, and _now_, in this cold, pitch-black cell, and all he's ever known, or will know, is agony beyond description.

* * *

Matt swears under his breath.

This isn't good. 

"Please, Keith, don't die on me now," he begs. "Hang in there. _Please_." 

**Author's Note:**

> My personal headcanon is that Pidge got there soon afterwards, and rescue shortly followed. 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed! Comments make me happier than a dark chocolate mocha (a favorite treat of mine!) and kudos are like the happy, snuggly feeling you get when a cold autumn wind whips through your hair but you are wearing your favorite sweatshirt with the hood up (Mine's purple <3)


End file.
